Differences in patterns of drug use between women and men

[Pages:20]Differences in patterns of drug use between women and men

Differences in patterns of drug use between women and men

Key findings

1

Introduction

2

Cannabis

4

Ecstasy

9

Tranquillisers and sedatives

11

Alcohol and drug comparisons

13

Use of drug treatment services

15

Discussion

17

? European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2005. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

Differences in patterns of drug use between women and men

1

Key findings

Males outnumber females among drug users and clients attending drug treatment services.

Male to female ratios vary in magnitude across different countries in the European Union.

Among female school students, lifetime prevalence for cannabis and ecstasy are closer to those of their male counterparts than is the case for adults.

Country variations in the gender ratio are more marked among adults than among 15to 16-year-olds and more marked for ecstasy than for cannabis.

The number of females in relation to males tends to increase as prevalence of drug use increases.

The number of females in relation to males is generally lower for the more illegal drugs and recent or frequent patterns of drug use.

Increases in drug use among 15- to 16-yearold males are usually accompanied by increases among females but tend to occur earlier or more rapidly among males.

Most of the care provided by drug treatment services is for opiate, cocaine and cannabis problems, for which male clients far outnumber females.

The proportions of females among clients receiving drug treatment are highest among young (under 20 years old) clients with problems relating to amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) drugs and among older (over 39 years old) clients with problems resulting from the use of sedative (pharmaceutical) drugs.

Technical note

Differences between males and females are presented here as ratios of prevalence among males over females. Ratios higher than 1 indicate more males than females, for example a ratio of 2 indicates twice as many males than females. Ratios less than 1 indicate more females than males so that a ratio of 0.5 will indicate twice as many females as males. (Diagrams are drawn with logarithmic scaling.)

Typically three observational time windows are used by studies of illicit drug consumption. These are ever use or lifetime prevalence (LTP), recent use defined as use in the last year (LYP) and current use defined as use in the last month or 30 days (LMP) before interview. Lifetime prevalence indicates, at least, experimental use.

Differences in patterns of drug use between women and men

2

Introduction

In the European Union men are more likely than women to use illicit drugs. Gender differences in patterns of drug use are often considerable and are reflected in the fact that among the clients of drug treatment services the proportion of women is only around 20%.

In this technical data sheet gender differences are explored in European data from three sources: school surveys (1), general population surveys (2) and drug treatment services (3) in the European Union. These data suggest that gender differences among people using drugs and attending drug treatment services, and the magnitude of these differences, are linked to a number of different factors. Here the impact of national situation, age of drug user and types of drug used on observed differences in patterns of drug consumption is explored in detail. Clearly, other factors are also likely to be important in influencing these male to female ratios. The EMCDDA will be preparing a more extensive special issue on gender in 2006 as part of its annual reporting exercise.

Gender differences in both prevalence of drug use and prevalence of treatment attendance vary considerably by country. For example, in Cyprus, men attending drug treatment services outnumber women by 9:1, compared with Hungary, where the ratio is much lower (1.6:1).

Age also influences the size of the gender difference: in many countries, the difference in lifetime experience of cannabis use is lower between male and female school students than between males and females in the general adult population (aged 15?64). In general, males outnumber females in estimates of cannabis use but females outnumber males in estimates for the use of pharmaceutical tranquillisers and sedatives. Male?female differences also vary with different patterns of drug use (Figure 1). For example, male predominance is greater for recent or frequent drug use than for occasional or experimental drug use.

Among clients of drug treatment services, the proportion of males attending with cannabis, cocaine and opiate problems is higher than the proportion with ATS (4) problems. And in some countries female clients being treated for problems with hypnotic and sedative drugs outnumber males.

(1) ESPAD (the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs) 1995, 1999 and 2005 (See for details).

(2) There are harmonised instruments to collect data on drug use in the general population in European Union Member States (See for details).

(3) There are harmonised instruments to collect data on drug treatment clients in European Union Member States (See for details).

(4) The term ATS is used to refer to amphetamine-type stimulants ? this group includes the ecstasy group of drugs, amphetamine and methamphetamine.

Differences in patterns of drug use between women and men

3

Figure 1

Comparison of male to female ratios for 15- to 16-year-old students and all adults, LTP cannabis

Male to female ratios (log scale)

8.00 -

15- to16-year-old students All adults

4.00 -

2.00 -

1.00 -

0.50 -

LTP % all adults

- 50

% LTP all adults

- 40

- 30

- 20

- 10

- 0

Estonia Hungary Portugal

Poland Latvia Sweden Finland Greece Slovak Rep. Norway Ireland Germany Netherlands Czech Rep.

Italy France Spain United Kingdom Denmark

0.25 -

This figure shows that the male predominance seen in adults at low prevalence levels is less evident among students.

Notes Countries are ordered by increasing levels of prevalence (LTP, all adults) according to the 2004 Statistical bulletin (right-hand axis). Their male to female ratios are plotted on a logarithmic scale (left-hand axis), and most are greater than 1.0 (equality).

Sources 15- to 16-year-old students, ESPAD 2003; all adults (15?64 years old), 2004 EMCDDA Statistical bulletin. ESPAD 2003 figures for Germany are based on six regions only (Bavaria, Brandenburg, Berlin, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia).

Differences in patterns of drug use between women and men

4

Cannabis

In Europe, the vast majority of those young people that have tried an illicit drug have used cannabis, and males are generally more likely to have done so than females. Depending on the specific age group and gender, lifetime prevalence for having used cannabis at least once ranges from 2% of 15to 16-year-old-female students in Cyprus to 50?52% of young adult males in the United Kingdom and Denmark.

Males outnumber females for lifetime experience of cannabis in most of the countries surveyed. Among school students aged 15?16 years, more males have lifetime experience of cannabis than females in all but three countries (Ireland, Finland and Norway). School student male to female ratios are fairly consistent across most countries in the European Union, ranging from 1.0 in Ireland, Finland and Norway to 1.8 in Portugal. However, gender differences for lifetime experience (LTP) of cannabis use among all adults (aged 15?64) reveal considerably greater variations across countries, in that male to female ratios range from 1.25 in Finland to 4.0 in Estonia. In European Union countries with relatively high prevalence rates, the difference between male and female adults tends to be less marked than in countries with low prevalence rates. Conversely, larger gender differences among adults tend to be reported in countries with relatively low lifetime prevalence for cannabis. These are largely the new European Union Member States (with the exception of the Czech Republic and Slovenia), together with Greece and Portugal. Sweden, Norway and Finland are exceptions as prevalence is relatively low and male?female differences minimal (Figure 1).

Data also show an increase in male?female differences from young to older age groups. Ratios for lifetime experience of cannabis increase from a range of 1.0?1.8 among 15-

to 16-year-old school students to 1.25?4.0 among all adults.

The predominance of males over females increases as the observation time frame is shortened from lifetime use through recent (LYP) to current use (during the last 30 days). Male?female differences for lifetime experience (LTP) range from 1.2 to 4.0, whereas recent use (LYP) ranges from 1.5 in Finland to 4.3 in Hungary. In the case of current use, the male?female ratios are even higher, ranging from 1.8 in Norway to 5.9 in Portugal. However, caution is required in interpreting these figures as random variations may be high as a result of the low numbers reported for recent and current use (Figure 2). Among 15- to 16-year-old school students, sex ratio differences are considerably greater for the `frequent use' of cannabis (40+ times during a lifetime) as compared with those found for lifetime prevalence or last year prevalence. In some countries, male students are twice, three times and, in one country, even four times as prevalent as females in the frequent use group. Again some caution is needed in interpreting these results because of the relatively small numbers of students reporting frequent use involved (Figure 3).

Since 1995 the most marked, continuous increases in lifetime experience of cannabis among both male and female school students have taken place in the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Slovenia and the Slovak

Differences in patterns of drug use between women and men

5

Republic. Although increases generally occurred in parallel among both male and female students, Figure 4 illustrates that in 2003 lifetime prevalence for cannabis loses the strong male predominance in high-prevalence countries and where there are substantial changes from 1995 it is generally towards more equality between males and females.

The ratio of males to females among clients attending drug treatment services for cannabis problems is higher than that for drug treatment in general and is particularly high among younger people. Variations between countries are evident, with the highest male to female ratios reported in Spain and the lowest in Slovenia (Figure 5).

Figure 2

Male to female ratios for all adults, LTP, LYP and LMP cannabis

Male to female ratios (log scale)

8.00 -

LTP

LYP

LMP

4.00 -

2.00 -

1.00 -

LTP %

- 50

% LTP all adults

- 40

- 30

- 20

- 10

- 0

Estonia Hungary Portugal

Poland France Latvia Belgium Sweden Finland Greece Slovak Rep. Norway Ireland Germany Netherlands Czech Rep.

Italy Spain United Kingdom Denmark

0.50 -

0.25 -

This figure shows that, among adults, the male?female ratio is lower for experimental (LTP) use than for last year use and is generally greatest for use during the past month. The correlation with lifetime prevalence is 0.82 (log-odds transforms).

Notes

Countries are ordered by increasing levels of prevalence (LTP, all adults) according to the 2004 Statistical bulletin (right-hand axis). Their male to female ratios are plotted on a logarithmic scale (left-hand axis), and all are greater than 1.0 (equality).

SoCurocuenstries are ordered by increasing levels of prevalence (LTP, all adults) 2004 EMCDDA Statistical bulletin. according to the 2004 Statistical buIlnleBtienlg(riiugmhtn-hoanddataxaisr)e. aThveairlambalelefor last year's prevalence. to female ratios are plotted on a In the Czech Republic no data are available for last month's prevalence. logarithmic scale (left-hand axis), and all are greater than 1.0 (equality).

Differences in patterns of drug use between women and men

6

Figure 3

Male to female ratios for 15- to 16-year-old students for experimental (LTP) and repeated (40+ in lifetime) cannabis use, 2003

Cyprus Greece Sweden

Malta Finland Lithuania Portugal

Latvia Hungary

Poland Austria Estonia Denmark Slovak Rep

Italy Germany Netherlands Slovenia

Belgium Spain France

United Kingdom Ireland

Czech Rep.

Male to female ratios (log scale)

8.00 -

LTP ratio M:F Use 40+ in lifetime ratio M:F

4.00 -

2.00 -

1.00 -

0.50 -

0.25 -

LTP %

% LTP - 50

- 40 - 30 - 20 - 10 - 0

This figure shows that male?female differences in experimental (LTP) use are lower in countries with high prevalence levels but that repeated (40+ in lifetime) use is higher among males in all countries from where date are available (except Ireland).

Notes Countries are ordered by increasing levels of prevalence (LTP) of all students in 2003 (right-hand axis). Their male to female ratios are plotted on a logarithmic scale (left-hand axis), and most are greater than 1.0 (equality).

Sources 15- to 16-year-old students, ESPAD 2003. Figures for Germany are based on six regions only (Bavaria, Brandenburg, Berlin, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia). Data on 40+ times in lifetime use are not available from Spain. In Cyprus, Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia repeated use ratios could not be computed because of a zero prevalence.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download